Tesla Just Set an Unveiling Date for the Model Y Crossover

Here’s what we know about Elon Musk’s new EV

By Alex Lauer

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04 March 2019

Yesterday, Elon Musk made an announcement about Tesla: “Having toast & jam in kitchen while playing Jamming by Bob Marley.”

Ah, sorry, that was three tweets later. Here’s the real statement: “Model Y unveil event on March 14 at LA Design Studio.” In other words, Tesla’s new crossover EV will finally be revealed to the public this month, after first being hinted at in 2015.

As with most of Tesla’s announcements, it came direct from Musk’s personal Twitter account and was short on details (and was squeezed between the aforementioned jam session and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon launch). According to the tweets, the Model Y will be roughly 10-percent bigger than the Model 3, will cost about 10-percent more and have the same battery but less range. During the unveiling next Thursday, he promises detailed specs, pricing and “test rides in Y” — so we’re talking about a fully functional model.

The most interesting part about the announcement? News outlets are acting like this is a surprise, but Musk had previously revealed the date … almost 10 months ago.

He followed that May 2018 proclamation by saying, "I just made that up, because the Ides of March sounded good.” He continued, “But consider it real. We could unveil Model Y anytime from late this year to mid next year, so March 15 is about right.” And now it’s officially set for March 14th. No matter what you say about Musk, even though he makes more impossible claims before breakfast than most of us do in a lifetime, you can’t say he doesn’t follow through.

For instance, take the names of Tesla’s vehicles. We’ve got the Model S, the Model 3, the Model X and now the Model Y. What does that spell? “S3XY.”